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Inside The Tape With Greg Cosell: "They Did Not Really Have Any Intermediate Type Of Passing Game" · Inside the Birds: A Philadelphia Eagles Podcast

0:03
Speaker 1: Hello, welcome to Inside the Tape on Inside the Birds.
0:12
Speaker 1: I'm Jeff Mosher, and of course we've got with us
0:14
Speaker 1: Greg Cosell to help us break down the tape of
0:18
Speaker 1: another Eagles loss, Greg. Five straight, they lose to the
0:20
Speaker 1: Cowboys Monday night. It was ugly, 38-21. It started off
0:24
Speaker 1: with a little bit of promise, especially from the offense.
0:28
Speaker 1: but obviously defensively let down, and then the Eagles lose
0:31
Speaker 1: five straight. So what we'll do is we'll break down
0:35
Speaker 1: the offense first. There were some interesting things that happened
0:38
Speaker 1: in that game, and then obviously in our next edition,
0:41
Speaker 1: we'll really get into the defense and all the breakdowns
0:44
Speaker 1: that you saw. But when you watch the Eagles offense
0:48
Speaker 1: on tape, right, we saw the healthy return of two
0:50
Speaker 1: starting offensive linemen, and Saquon Barkley tried his best to
0:55
Speaker 1: gut it out. What did you see when you watched
0:57
Speaker 1: the tape of it?
0:58
Speaker 2: Well, I think the overview is that they did not
1:02
Speaker 2: really have any kind of intermediate passing game and it's
1:05
Speaker 2: hard to generate any explosive plays without it. They had
1:09
Speaker 2: one pass play of 20 plus yards and that came
1:11
Speaker 2: on a shallow crosser with run after catch. You know,
1:15
Speaker 2: only seven of McKee's passes went more than 10 air
1:18
Speaker 2: yards from the line of scrimmage. You know, he only
1:21
Speaker 2: averaged 5.2 air yards per attempt. So it really stuck
1:26
Speaker 2: out to me that they just, They didn't have any
1:28
Speaker 2: kind of intermediate passing game. It's hard to play that way.
1:32
Speaker 2: Now they ran the ball pretty well, actually. And obviously
1:35
Speaker 2: who knows what would have happened if Barkley, and I
1:38
Speaker 2: guess they said it wasn't his hamstring. They're saying it's
1:40
Speaker 2: his back, but you know, who knows if he was
1:44
Speaker 2: able to play with a full workload, if the game
1:46
Speaker 2: could have been different. You don't know the answer to that,
1:50
Speaker 2: you know, so it's not worth speculating, but the run
1:53
Speaker 2: game was solid. It's just that they need more out
1:56
Speaker 2: of their pass game. And, you know, it's funny, Jeff,
1:59
Speaker 2: I'm a believer and, and maybe being around so many
2:02
Speaker 2: coaches in my career, I think it's a cop-out to
2:06
Speaker 2: say you don't have great receivers, you know, because you can,
2:09
Speaker 2: you can design a pass game. Sure. And, and, you know, again,
2:14
Speaker 2: this is not a knock on a coaching staff, but
2:16
Speaker 2: I know the immediate response, because you hear that with
2:18
Speaker 2: a lot of teams when they don't have great receivers,
2:21
Speaker 2: the idea of, well, they don't have great receivers as if, okay,
2:24
Speaker 2: so you know what, we're not even going to try
2:25
Speaker 2: to throw the ball.
2:26
Speaker 1: Right.
2:26
Speaker 2: You know, that's, You can design stuff. Now, obviously, there'll
2:30
Speaker 2: be man-to-man situations. And then maybe your receivers aren't going
2:34
Speaker 2: to win as often as if you had better receivers.
2:37
Speaker 2: But there's a lot of zone coverage played as well.
2:40
Speaker 2: And that's where you have to create opportunities, clean, defined
2:44
Speaker 2: throws for your quarterback based on your route design and
2:46
Speaker 2: your route concepts.
2:47
Speaker 1: Sure. I was surprised, Greg, as the game settled in.
2:50
Speaker 1: I understood the way it started. Try to get the
2:54
Speaker 1: run game going. Try to get the ball out of
2:55
Speaker 1: McKee's hands quickly. See what you've got with your offensive
2:58
Speaker 1: line and pass protection. It was pretty clear after the
3:01
Speaker 1: first quarter that the Eagles were pass protecting okay. I
3:04
Speaker 1: thought that might enable them to open up, to your point,
3:08
Speaker 1: the offense. But as the game went on, there was
3:10
Speaker 1: just no deep or intermediate game there. Was that something
3:16
Speaker 1: that you felt was a route design thing? Or did
3:19
Speaker 1: you just see opportunities there, but McKee just decided to
3:22
Speaker 1: go Go low, go quick, get it out.
3:26
Speaker 2: The way I saw it, Jeff, it was more of
3:28
Speaker 2: a route design.
3:29
Speaker 1: Okay.
3:31
Speaker 2: Look, I'm sure that if Sean Manning was sitting here
3:33
Speaker 2: or Parks Frazier or, you know, one of their coaches,
3:36
Speaker 2: they might say, hey, we had a couple of plays where,
3:39
Speaker 2: you know, we had it set up and we wanted
3:41
Speaker 2: to take a shot. I guess that's possible. I'm not
3:44
Speaker 2: going to say that that's not possible. But I don't
3:46
Speaker 2: think there were glaring misses by any. by Tanner McKee
3:50
Speaker 2: where you just went, Oh my God, that, that guy's
3:52
Speaker 2: wide open at 22 yards. Why isn't he turning it loose?
3:55
Speaker 2: You know, I didn't feel like that was the structure
3:59
Speaker 2: and nature of their past game.
4:00
Speaker 1: For sure. How about from a personnel standpoint, we find
4:04
Speaker 1: that the Eagles had way more tight ends healthy than
4:07
Speaker 1: they did wide receivers. I thought maybe we would see
4:11
Speaker 1: then maybe a lot more 12 personnel. We did see
4:14
Speaker 1: some 13 personnel, but in general, were they were more
4:17
Speaker 1: 11 personnel heavy?
4:19
Speaker 2: Yeah. And I think, I mean, they played 48 snaps
4:21
Speaker 2: and 11 personnel. They only played 13 snaps with multiple
4:25
Speaker 2: tight ends. They have been an 11 personnel offense all
4:29
Speaker 2: season long, as you know, Jeff, I think they might
4:31
Speaker 2: even lead the league or they're certainly in the top
4:33
Speaker 2: three in 11 personnel percentage. And that's the way they've
4:37
Speaker 2: chosen to play. Maybe that's a function of injury. Uh,
4:40
Speaker 2: obviously Goddard missed a meaningful amount of time. Um, but
4:43
Speaker 2: we saw Stowers for the first time, uh, It wasn't
4:46
Speaker 2: really used in a way where I felt like, okay,
4:48
Speaker 2: I know what Stowers is in this offense. He didn't
4:50
Speaker 2: play enough snaps, I think, to get a feel for
4:53
Speaker 2: ultimately what they want him to be within the context
4:55
Speaker 2: of the offense. But maybe as we go forward, they'll
4:59
Speaker 2: play more snaps of 12 because he is a tight end.
5:02
Speaker 2: Even though he's got excellent movement, he is a tight end.
5:05
Speaker 2: And he certainly can run vertically. He can run down
5:07
Speaker 2: the seam. Maybe we'll start seeing more of that as
5:10
Speaker 2: we go forward. This was his first game, as I said,
5:13
Speaker 2: got his feet wet. I think he only played maybe
5:15
Speaker 2: 12 snaps. So you just didn't get enough of a
5:17
Speaker 2: feel for what he can or cannot do. But it'll
5:22
Speaker 2: be interesting to see. And now that Calcaterra is healthy,
5:24
Speaker 2: he's also more of a receiving threat than a blocking threat.
5:28
Speaker 2: We'll see. I mean, that's where coaching comes into play
5:31
Speaker 2: is how to best deploy your players.
5:34
Speaker 1: Absolutely. Absolutely. Um, to get back to Barkley, Greg, now
5:38
Speaker 1: on that 29 yard run on the third play of
5:40
Speaker 1: the game, uh, you saw him almost get tripped up
5:43
Speaker 1: at midfield. That's where he kind of had a hitch
5:45
Speaker 1: in his run. And he said, that's where his back,
5:47
Speaker 1: he felt his back lock up. But to, to the
5:50
Speaker 1: point you were making about the hamstring, he also said
5:53
Speaker 1: after the game that when you're favoring one area, you
5:56
Speaker 1: tend to the other. And that's what he was insinuating.
6:00
Speaker 1: So obviously he was only, it's, it's kind of a
6:03
Speaker 1: shame too, because the way he impacted it in such
6:05
Speaker 1: a short time made you wonder how that game might've looked.
6:08
Speaker 1: Had he been able to play even like 60% of
6:11
Speaker 1: the snaps?
6:11
Speaker 2: I know it could well have been different. I mean,
6:14
Speaker 2: clearly they came out, you know, and they wanted to
6:18
Speaker 2: run the football. Then on the play after Barkley, they
6:21
Speaker 2: hit lemon. That was the only 20 yard completion. That
6:24
Speaker 2: was a shallow crosser, but it was a well-designed three
6:26
Speaker 2: man route concept into the boundary and, You know, so,
6:31
Speaker 2: you know, you just don't know because obviously, again, you
6:35
Speaker 2: never know how a team plays, a defense plays. You know,
6:39
Speaker 2: I mean, you look at what the Seahawks have a
6:41
Speaker 2: great defense, but they shut down Kenneth Walker and they
6:44
Speaker 2: basically played in a too high safety structure the whole game.
6:48
Speaker 2: And people would say, well, you can't play with too
6:49
Speaker 2: high safeties against a good running game. Well, they played
6:52
Speaker 2: with too high safeties almost the whole game. You know,
6:54
Speaker 2: they just they haven't have great people on their front seven.
6:56
Speaker 2: and Nick Emanuari, but you never know how a team
6:59
Speaker 2: will play. You know, if you start running the ball,
7:01
Speaker 2: you just don't know the answer to that. Obviously the
7:03
Speaker 2: Cowboys are not a, you know, really that good a
7:06
Speaker 2: defense overall. So you just don't know how they would
7:08
Speaker 2: have played.
7:09
Speaker 1: Did you feel like in the limited, well, when they
7:12
Speaker 1: did run the ball, even with Pierce or anybody else
7:14
Speaker 1: that you could tell that Dickerson and Kendall and the
7:20
Speaker 1: line moved defenses a little bit more than when they
7:23
Speaker 1: had majors and Lampkin in there.
7:26
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, it was better. I mean, Kendall's an
7:28
Speaker 2: interesting player cause he's, he's not strong. He's not a,
7:31
Speaker 2: you know, he's not a powerful player. He's not a mauler.
7:34
Speaker 2: He's much more of a angle leverage control player calculated,
7:39
Speaker 2: you know, how he plays. Cause there are times he
7:42
Speaker 2: does physically get handled, but he's also very, very good
7:45
Speaker 2: at understanding angles in the run game and working to
7:48
Speaker 2: the second level. Uh, that's what he does well. You know,
7:51
Speaker 2: Dickerson is obviously much more of the mauler type. Um,
7:54
Speaker 2: and that's his game. Um, So it was better for sure.
7:56
Speaker 2: I mean, they're your starters. They were playing with three agents.
7:59
Speaker 2: They're your starters.
8:01
Speaker 1: Right. And how did Dickerson look, especially as the game
8:03
Speaker 1: went on because he hadn't played in a while? And
8:05
Speaker 1: I did see that obviously McKee started to get sacked
8:09
Speaker 1: and pressured a little bit as the game went on.
8:10
Speaker 1: Was that a function of the whole line? What did
8:14
Speaker 1: you think of Dickerson?
8:15
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, I think that he's a mauler. He's
8:19
Speaker 2: at his best in the run game. He's always going
8:21
Speaker 2: to have a couple of bad snaps. It's the way
8:24
Speaker 2: in which he plays. You know, he's not necessarily a
8:26
Speaker 2: recovery player because he's a power player. He's got to win.
8:30
Speaker 2: If he wins early, he wins.
8:32
Speaker 1: Right.
8:33
Speaker 2: But, you know, again, I wasn't charting every play, but
8:37
Speaker 2: I didn't see him as a liability by any means. Mm-hmm. Good, good.
8:41
Speaker 1: And last, let's talk about Makai Lemon because we saw
8:44
Speaker 1: him used quite a bit. They got him involved in
8:46
Speaker 1: the offense. I guess it goes back to, for me,
8:51
Speaker 1: just watching it, it's just like, okay, but you're– so
8:54
Speaker 1: far they've used him as a short catch merchant instead
8:56
Speaker 1: of really, you know, trying to extend the field. Listen,
8:59
Speaker 1: I know he's not going to, he's not a type
9:01
Speaker 1: of receiver to go beat, you know, a two high
9:03
Speaker 1: down the, down the field or anything like that. But
9:07
Speaker 1: it just seemed like it was really set up for
9:09
Speaker 1: him to catch the slants and the hitches.
9:11
Speaker 2: Yeah. Well, to me, and we've talked about this ever
9:15
Speaker 2: since they drafted him, to me, that's what he is.
9:17
Speaker 1: Yeah.
9:17
Speaker 2: You know, that's his game. I mean, like I've told
9:20
Speaker 2: you guys, I always thought of him like Khalil Shakir.
9:23
Speaker 2: And I think he's one of those guys, you know, he's,
9:25
Speaker 2: he's got some quickness to him, some lateral juice. Um,
9:28
Speaker 2: you wouldn't call him purely explosive. Um, you know, with
9:32
Speaker 2: those guys, you never say, well, gee, they'll never ever
9:34
Speaker 2: catch a deep ball. I would never say that, but
9:36
Speaker 2: I don't think he's, he's ultimately in the context of
9:39
Speaker 2: an offense. He's not truly a vertical player. Um, you know,
9:43
Speaker 2: he's got enough run after catch that he can do
9:46
Speaker 2: some things with the ball in his hands. Um, So
9:48
Speaker 2: I think this is probably the best way to deploy
9:51
Speaker 2: him within the context of an offense. Now, obviously, not
9:54
Speaker 2: every route do you want to be a shallow crosser,
9:56
Speaker 2: but I don't think you're going to see him as
9:58
Speaker 2: one of those deep post guys. or running deep sail routes. Again,
10:03
Speaker 2: like I said, that doesn't mean never, but I don't
10:06
Speaker 2: ultimately think that's what he is.
10:07
Speaker 1: It was a little not surprising. I guess it shouldn't
10:11
Speaker 1: be surprising because we knew the Dallas defense going in
10:14
Speaker 1: had struggled, but man, early on the game, there were
10:16
Speaker 1: some third and like we'll say third and fourth, third
10:20
Speaker 1: and sixth, and guys were just wide open against it.
10:22
Speaker 1: It reminded me of that, what we talked about at
10:24
Speaker 1: the Packers game, where the Packers would be in third
10:26
Speaker 1: and long, and then they would get something even longer.
10:28
Speaker 2: Yeah, they had issues, the Cowboys. And again, you don't
10:33
Speaker 2: know why. You can't assist blame to anybody because you
10:36
Speaker 2: don't know. But on those crossers, particularly there was mesh
10:40
Speaker 2: a couple of times, but they just had issues, whether
10:43
Speaker 2: it's communication, whether they have a built-in adjustment. whether one
10:47
Speaker 2: guy just made a mistake, you know, we don't know
10:49
Speaker 2: the answer, but something was not right.
10:51
Speaker 1: Absolutely. I feel like that's what's been said about the
10:55
Speaker 1: Cowboys past defense every week. Something's not right.
10:58
Speaker 2: All right.
10:59
Speaker 1: Let's take a look at some footage of the Eagles offense.
11:02
Speaker 1: I wanted to hyper-focus in a little bit on some
11:05
Speaker 1: of the things they did early in the game, Greg.
11:06
Speaker 1: This is As I rewind, first thing we're going to
11:10
Speaker 1: take a look at is Barkley's 29-yard run. I just
11:13
Speaker 1: wanted you to kind of diagnose, A, the blocking scheme.
11:16
Speaker 1: And we can talk about Makai Lemon actually throwing a
11:19
Speaker 1: nice little block at the second.
11:20
Speaker 2: Yeah, and you know what? He had some good blocks.
11:22
Speaker 2: I mean, he works at it. You have to be
11:24
Speaker 2: really impressed with him because he's not very big, but
11:27
Speaker 2: he works at it. He's got no problem with the
11:29
Speaker 2: physical part of the game. It's very impressive. Yep. This
11:34
Speaker 2: looked to me like kind of an inside zone concept.
11:37
Speaker 2: You know, every team calls things differently. You know, they
11:39
Speaker 2: might have a name for it that's not inside zone.
11:43
Speaker 2: You know, Dickerson actually got beat a little bit here.
11:46
Speaker 2: He got beat to the inside and Barkley cut off him.
11:50
Speaker 2: But I thought that Kendall did a really nice job.
11:52
Speaker 2: This is a good example to me of Kendall with
11:55
Speaker 2: his control and calculation climbing to the second level to
11:58
Speaker 2: block Barham. I thought he did a really nice job
12:00
Speaker 2: there because those are the kinds of blocks, as you know, Jeff,
12:03
Speaker 2: you don't have to hold them for five seconds.
12:05
Speaker 1: Right.
12:06
Speaker 2: You know, you just have to make sure that at
12:09
Speaker 2: that second level, the guy can't get off you and
12:11
Speaker 2: make the tackle. Right. You know, because he's a better
12:14
Speaker 2: athlete than you are. So, you know, but I thought,
12:18
Speaker 2: you know, he did a good job. And obviously the
12:21
Speaker 2: kick out here was strong by a mile odd, I
12:24
Speaker 2: believe it was. And so, yeah, you can see, look,
12:27
Speaker 2: you see the hole, you know, right now. I mean,
12:30
Speaker 2: you and I could run through that hole.
12:31
Speaker 1: Listen, this is why I'm freezing it here, because you
12:34
Speaker 1: and I and Adam, we've made this point constantly that
12:37
Speaker 1: Saquon Barkley is the type of runner that needs this.
12:40
Speaker 1: You know, it doesn't always have to be this.
12:42
Speaker 2: I know what you're saying.
12:42
Speaker 1: This is extreme.
12:43
Speaker 2: Right. Obviously, you're not going to get this.
12:45
Speaker 1: But no, but he's not a skinny through the whole guy.
12:47
Speaker 1: But if you give him this, he turns it into
12:49
Speaker 1: something that only Barkley can do. Right.
12:52
Speaker 2: He's not because he's a little stiff in his hips.
12:54
Speaker 2: He's not necessarily a balanced body control, getting skinny to
12:57
Speaker 2: a really tight creases at the point of attack. He's
13:00
Speaker 2: not that guy, but if you give him this, and again,
13:04
Speaker 2: we don't want people to think this is what every
13:05
Speaker 2: hole should be because it's not in the NFL, but
13:08
Speaker 2: if you can get him past the first level relatively
13:11
Speaker 2: cleanly where he can build up some speed and velocity,
13:15
Speaker 2: then you're going to get this. And, and, you know, again,
13:17
Speaker 2: who knows if he didn't tweak, you know, it looked,
13:19
Speaker 2: I even put in my notes, it looked like he
13:20
Speaker 2: tweaked his hamstring, but I guess it was his back.
13:22
Speaker 2: You know, there's no way to know that, you know,
13:24
Speaker 2: unless he tells you, but you know, this is, but
13:28
Speaker 2: you hope for it, that he can generate that speed
13:30
Speaker 2: and velocity. I mean, everybody remembers 2024, the Super Bowl year.
13:33
Speaker 2: How many times on plays like this did he house it?
13:36
Speaker 2: I mean, you know, and maybe if he was 100% healthy,
13:39
Speaker 2: he would have here too. You don't know.
13:40
Speaker 1: Right. Also, that's Darius Cooper blocking at the 45, walling off.
13:45
Speaker 1: I mean, just really good block. This is one of
13:47
Speaker 1: the things we talked about earlier in the year, the
13:49
Speaker 1: Eagles not getting enough of, and that's perimeter blocking.
13:52
Speaker 2: And I would bet in this offense, because of where
13:55
Speaker 2: Sean Mannion comes from with the Shanahan-McVay school, that that's
13:58
Speaker 2: stressed because, you know, Cooper blocks, East Lennon blocks, we
14:02
Speaker 2: know Wicks blocks. I bet that's stressed. Yep.
14:06
Speaker 1: There's that kick out. This is the end zone view.
14:08
Speaker 1: Nice recovery, like you said, by Dickerson there. And then angle.
14:12
Speaker 2: Yeah. And also you want your back. I mean, look,
14:16
Speaker 2: very rarely, because, you know, I watch tape of all
14:19
Speaker 2: teams and do segments for my matchup show. And we
14:21
Speaker 2: do running plays very rarely are, are running plays, but
14:24
Speaker 2: blocked so perfectly like it's on, on the iPad or
14:27
Speaker 2: the blackboard. Right. You expect your back a good back
14:31
Speaker 2: and Barkley, certainly that to be able to make a
14:33
Speaker 2: cut like that, you know, off, off an alignment. I mean,
14:37
Speaker 2: you know, that's, that's to be expected. Yep.
14:41
Speaker 1: I would, I would have called that a touchdown saving tackle,
14:43
Speaker 1: but it didn't really matter.
14:44
Speaker 2: Cause I, No, and you can tell that something happened
14:46
Speaker 2: right there because he sort of, you know, he throttled
14:49
Speaker 2: down and ran out of bounds.
14:51
Speaker 1: Right. So a couple of plays later, they throw a
14:54
Speaker 1: 21-yard pass to Lemon. And this is something I think
14:56
Speaker 1: you wrote about a route concept that they use quite
14:59
Speaker 1: a bit, a three-man route concept.
15:01
Speaker 2: Yeah, I like this, you know, and you have to
15:04
Speaker 2: remember one thing, and I hope people understand, none of
15:06
Speaker 2: these are unique to the Eagles. You know, there's not
15:08
Speaker 2: a thousand route concepts. But, you know, I just really like,
15:12
Speaker 2: this is where they put Stowers in motion across the formation.
15:15
Speaker 2: And I believe it's Cooper down below and they both
15:17
Speaker 2: release vertically outside. Okay. So, so what happens here is
15:23
Speaker 2: then they bring a lemon from the other side, from
15:25
Speaker 2: the field into the boundary. So that's right in the
15:28
Speaker 2: vision of McKee. Now he's, he wants to throw it quickly,
15:31
Speaker 2: but he, he sees the defender. So he, he pulls
15:34
Speaker 2: it back and then hits him. But you can see
15:36
Speaker 2: because of the two vertical routes outside the numbers into
15:40
Speaker 2: the boundary, you end up with space in the middle.
15:43
Speaker 2: And that's where he hits Lemon. And this was the
15:45
Speaker 2: only 20-yard-plus completion in the game because he has room
15:48
Speaker 2: to run. This is well done. It's well designed, well executed.
15:52
Speaker 2: You're giving your quarterback a defined, clean read. And that's
15:55
Speaker 2: what you want to do, particularly early in a game.
15:57
Speaker 2: This was obviously the first possession. Right.
15:59
Speaker 1: And you can see he fights contact off. So he's
16:02
Speaker 1: a strong guy. He was able to pick up about
16:03
Speaker 1: maybe four or five extra at the tail end there
16:07
Speaker 1: just by fighting through some contact. And I think that
16:09
Speaker 1: that's what they have to continue to do is get
16:11
Speaker 1: him intermediary involved. with space like that and give him
16:15
Speaker 1: the ability to make yards after.
16:16
Speaker 2: No question. And yeah, that was good play. I liked it.
16:21
Speaker 2: All right.
16:22
Speaker 1: Here we have a mesh concept. This is one of the,
16:26
Speaker 1: I think Hollywood Browns only catch if I'm not mistaken.
16:29
Speaker 2: Oh yeah. This, this, I believe. Yeah, this was similar.
16:32
Speaker 2: You know let me just check what I, what I
16:36
Speaker 2: saw here.
16:38
Speaker 1: 35, I believe it's a third quarter and it's a mesh.
16:41
Speaker 1: Oh yeah.
16:42
Speaker 2: Yeah. So this came on mesh with Brown wide open
16:44
Speaker 2: on the shallow cross into the boundary. This was a
16:46
Speaker 2: great example of, of, you know, that the Cowboys clearly
16:50
Speaker 2: something's not right because Brown's coming from the top of
16:54
Speaker 2: the screen from the field, but down below, um, who's
16:58
Speaker 2: that running the, uh, the, uh, route down below.
17:00
Speaker 1: That's a great question. Is that Stowers as a one
17:03
Speaker 1: by three?
17:04
Speaker 2: I think I know who it is. Cause I think
17:06
Speaker 2: I made a note of it.
17:07
Speaker 1: Um, Seven or 87. It's towers.
17:10
Speaker 2: It's towers. So technically it's a one by three set.
17:14
Speaker 2: Cause he's a tight end. Yep. So what happens is
17:16
Speaker 2: Porter runs with towers as if he's playing him man
17:19
Speaker 2: to man like that. But on the other side, and again,
17:24
Speaker 2: maybe it's the corner that made a mistake up top.
17:26
Speaker 2: Maybe it's man and he's supposed to run with them.
17:29
Speaker 2: And then because of the traffic he can, and then
17:33
Speaker 2: overshown kind of looks at him and over some kind
17:35
Speaker 2: of points like, okay, Well, somebody's got to pick them
17:38
Speaker 2: up on the other side, but they're clearly playing man.
17:42
Speaker 2: The boundary players are playing man because Borders running with
17:45
Speaker 2: Stowers and then down below, that's man as well. So
17:51
Speaker 2: there's a mistake here and Brown's wide open. Yeah.
17:55
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Speaker 1: to learn more about your energy options. Again, yeah, you
20:20
Speaker 1: took advantage of it. Nice spacing there. Got the guy
20:23
Speaker 1: wide open. A couple of plays to Lemon here. This
20:25
Speaker 1: is 15 yards to Lemon on fourth and one.
20:34
Speaker 2: Yeah, this came on a shallow where Bland had him man-to-man,
20:39
Speaker 2: but Lemons reduced split and delayed release put Bland in
20:42
Speaker 2: recovery mode. This was well done.
20:44
Speaker 1: Is this because there's traffic here? He acts like he's
20:48
Speaker 1: not his run blocking, right?
20:49
Speaker 2: Yeah, and that's the other thing. Because of the delayed release,
20:52
Speaker 2: the tempoed release, look how Bland runs up. It looks
20:56
Speaker 2: like run because it's under center. It's under center. That's
20:59
Speaker 2: another advantage of under center, which we've discussed numerous times.
21:04
Speaker 2: and now he's in recovery mode, and he's not going
21:07
Speaker 2: to get there.
21:09
Speaker 1: If there's anything come out of this game, and again,
21:11
Speaker 1: the Cowboys' defense is not good, so we take that
21:14
Speaker 1: with a grain of salt, but their ability, if they
21:16
Speaker 1: can get Mekhi Lemon open in space, which is supposed
21:19
Speaker 1: to be what this offense does, off of under center,
21:22
Speaker 1: then he can create.
21:24
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's not bad at it. He's solid. I mean,
21:27
Speaker 2: he can do that. And this was the touchdown. This
21:29
Speaker 2: was a play that everybody runs in the league. It's
21:32
Speaker 2: basically they move him from three to one and he's
21:35
Speaker 2: simply going to run basically a slant using. I think
21:39
Speaker 2: that might be Elijah Moore using Elijah Moore as a pick.
21:44
Speaker 2: It's a legal natural pick. That's what it is. Right.
21:48
Speaker 1: What you like about is he really catches it at
21:50
Speaker 1: the three, three and a half.
21:52
Speaker 2: It's not a great throw, by the way.
21:54
Speaker 1: No, it is not a great throw. And he's able
21:57
Speaker 1: to kind of power through. right there between two guys.
22:02
Speaker 2: So, yeah. So, I mean, you know, the offense, look,
22:07
Speaker 2: the run game was finally something. And the past game
22:11
Speaker 2: just needs to grow a little more and become a
22:14
Speaker 2: little more expansive in attacking at the intermediate levels. And
22:18
Speaker 2: we'll see now that they have their starting offensive line back.
22:21
Speaker 2: And by the way, I thought Markel Bell played very well.
22:24
Speaker 2: I think he's doing a good job. I mean, I
22:26
Speaker 2: think you can see him. He can play in this
22:28
Speaker 2: league and be a starting right tackle.
22:30
Speaker 1: There he is right there. Gets his long arms up
22:32
Speaker 1: real quick in a three-step drop. There you go. Okay.
22:35
Speaker 1: Agree with you on the intermediary game. So I really disliked,
22:39
Speaker 1: just visually, the last drive of the Eagles before the
22:43
Speaker 1: second half. First of all, you know, me personally, this
22:46
Speaker 1: is just like, you know the Cowboys have a great
22:49
Speaker 1: kicker who can make it from anywhere. There's two and
22:51
Speaker 1: a half on the clock. What you would love to
22:52
Speaker 1: do is to try to run some plays to take
22:54
Speaker 1: some time off the clock so that Dallas can't go Right.
22:58
Speaker 1: Within field goal range. But the Eagles were unable to
23:00
Speaker 1: do any of that. And really, this is not necessarily
23:03
Speaker 1: on play calling. It's just on Tanner McKee.
23:05
Speaker 2: It was on McKee because he missed this one to Cooper.
23:08
Speaker 2: This is pitch and catch. Right. You know, you can't
23:11
Speaker 2: miss this throw. I mean, you just can't. I mean,
23:14
Speaker 2: you can't say there's a problem with the play call
23:16
Speaker 2: that they should have run the ball. This is this
23:18
Speaker 2: is pitch and catch. And even on the very next play,
23:20
Speaker 2: he throws it behind Lemon. So this was on Tanner McKee.
23:23
Speaker 1: Yeah. And then I think you said the next play
23:26
Speaker 1: thrown behind Lemon. Right there.
23:28
Speaker 2: Who's open, too. Yep. And if he hit him in stride,
23:31
Speaker 2: who knows what happens.
23:32
Speaker 1: For sure. I don't want to say this was the
23:37
Speaker 1: turning point in the game because the Eagles came out
23:39
Speaker 1: in the third quarter and had a nice drive, but
23:42
Speaker 1: it was a missed opportunity because Dallas was able to
23:45
Speaker 1: get the ball back, go down the field, and get Aubrey.
23:49
Speaker 1: So here's the last play I wanted to ask you about.
23:51
Speaker 1: So after those two misses, it's third and ten. And
23:56
Speaker 1: I wanted to see if you thought there was an
23:57
Speaker 1: opportunity here. He went short of the sticks immediately. Sort
24:01
Speaker 1: of a conservative decision. Did you feel like there might
24:05
Speaker 1: have been an opportunity with the pass protection to convert this?
24:10
Speaker 2: Well, then you'd have to feel comfortable about a throw. And,
24:13
Speaker 2: you know, again, now that's in his head. I mean,
24:16
Speaker 2: you know, when you stop it and he's already thrown it,
24:21
Speaker 2: it's easy to say, well, gee, that guy looks open.
24:23
Speaker 2: He's dropping back. He's, he's, you know, looking clearly to
24:27
Speaker 2: his left. So that's the read. Okay. So whatever happens
24:29
Speaker 2: down below is irrelevant because the read is to his left. Okay.
24:34
Speaker 2: So what he sees is four over three. That's what
24:37
Speaker 2: he sees. Yep. And the last thing you want to
24:41
Speaker 2: do is throw a pick.
24:42
Speaker 1: Right.
24:42
Speaker 2: So he probably feels like, you know what? It's undefined.
24:46
Speaker 2: I'm in the pocket. I can't sit there and wait.
24:49
Speaker 2: I have to throw the ball.
24:52
Speaker 1: Right.
24:53
Speaker 2: Yeah.
24:53
Speaker 1: Does maybe a more veteran QB, does he then go
24:57
Speaker 1: off his progression to the right to see if there's
25:00
Speaker 1: a backside?
25:01
Speaker 2: Well, if you look at the right right now, there'd
25:03
Speaker 2: be absolutely nothing.
25:04
Speaker 1: There's not, but he didn't even look either. But maybe
25:06
Speaker 1: he knew that. He might have known that that's just
25:08
Speaker 1: not how the routes developed there.
25:10
Speaker 2: Yeah. I mean, he knows, you know, this is a
25:13
Speaker 2: front side, you know, field read and it's a three
25:17
Speaker 2: receiver route. You know, does a Big-time quarterback, if you
25:22
Speaker 2: go back a little bit, does a big-time quarterback perhaps
25:26
Speaker 2: see the seam as an option here? But you'd have
25:28
Speaker 2: to throw that really early and believe in it. Just
25:33
Speaker 2: really believe it. The ball would have to be out now.
25:35
Speaker 1: I agree.
25:36
Speaker 2: Well, he's getting ready to throw it now. But you'd
25:38
Speaker 2: have to see that as a truly viable throw. that's, that's,
25:44
Speaker 2: that's hard for a young quarterback. I mean, if you're
25:46
Speaker 2: talking about, you know, a guy who's played in the
25:48
Speaker 2: league for years and years and who's naturally aggressive, maybe,
25:52
Speaker 2: but you can't knock Tanner McKee for that.
25:54
Speaker 1: Okay. Good stuff. No, the drive was just bad because
25:57
Speaker 1: it started off bad on first.
25:58
Speaker 2: Yeah.
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Speaker 1: and up. All right, so some decent things. We saw
27:00
Speaker 1: Mekhi Lemon. Get the ball to him. We did see
27:02
Speaker 1: some improvement from Markel Bell. The offensive line in general,
27:05
Speaker 1: you thought pass protection was pretty decent throughout the game.
27:08
Speaker 2: Keep in mind, and again, unfortunately, we're at this point
27:12
Speaker 2: of the season, and it hasn't been this way for
27:13
Speaker 2: a number of years where you're looking for positives. But
27:17
Speaker 2: they did start the third quarter with a nine-plus-minute drive,
27:20
Speaker 2: and they went ahead. Which, again, I just couldn't stay awake.
27:27
Speaker 2: I fell asleep at halftime, and then obviously I watched
27:30
Speaker 2: the tape. But I mean, I would imagine at that point,
27:32
Speaker 2: I'm not saying that everybody thought, oh, this one's in
27:34
Speaker 2: the bag, Eagles win. But you had to probably feel
27:36
Speaker 2: pretty good at that moment when he hit the lemon
27:39
Speaker 2: for the touchdown. You had to feel like, hey, we
27:41
Speaker 2: got a legit shot to win this game.
27:44
Speaker 1: Well, Greg, that's a great segue to our next episode
27:47
Speaker 1: because I wanted to feel that way. But the way
27:49
Speaker 1: the Eagles defense was playing, I was not thinking that
27:52
Speaker 1: at all. So we will get into that discussion on
27:55
Speaker 1: the next show and buckle up because that will be
27:57
Speaker 1: a wild ride. This was the offense. Greg, thanks again
28:01
Speaker 1: for the tape breakdown. We'll see you on the next show.
28:03
Speaker 1: For Greg Cosell, I'm Jeff Mosher. You've been watching Inside
28:06
Speaker 1: the Tape on Inside the Birds.